Political Crossfire Forums

[No2wookie]

An annoyance I've seen repeated in schools, universities and businesses is the idea of "getting out of your cultural comfort zone." What the people who use this say they mean is to get different ethnic groups to interact with each other.

What they really mean, however, is to get white people and force them to work together with other ethnic groups in a way that makes everyone expect differences that would probably not be there if no one had said anything.

This has got to stop. I don't know about you, but I'm a white dude, and the person I identify most with on the face of this whole planet is from Nigeria. The world is my cultural comfort zone. (Yeah, I still avoid vicious gangs and hate spewing folk, but every group has those, so it's not a real issue.)

I think the reason we STILL have yet to completely mesh as an American culture is because the idea of cultural comfort zones is being shoved down our throats to this day.

This is the year 2006, if you've still got well defined cultural comfort zones, there's something wrong with you.

[perdidochas]

No2wookie wrote: This is the year 2006, if you've still got well defined cultural comfort zones, there's something wrong with you.

Why? I do have cultural comfort zones, it's a natural human reaction. I like other educated middle class people, preferably married with kids. What's wrong with that?

[thebreadloaf2003]

No2wookie wrote: An annoyance I've seen repeated in schools, universities and businesses is the idea of "getting out of your cultural comfort zone." What the people who use this say they mean is to get different ethnic groups to interact with each other.

What they really mean, however, is to get white people and force them to work together with other ethnic groups in a way that makes everyone expect differences that would probably not be there if no one had said anything.

This has got to stop. I don't know about you, but I'm a white dude, and the person I identify most with on the face of this whole planet is from Nigeria. The world is my cultural comfort zone. (Yeah, I still avoid vicious gangs and hate spewing folk, but every group has those, so it's not a real issue.)

I think the reason we STILL have yet to completely mesh as an American culture is because the idea of cultural comfort zones is being shoved down our throats to this day.

Code: This is the year 2006, if you've still got well defined cultural comfort zones, there's something wrong with you.

I see your point on the "cultural comfort zone" an i do agree with you, however, i feel that they are more of comfort boundries. at a certain point a person feels uncomfortable with the situation (usually dpending directly with the # of different ethnicities present or the # of people f different ethinicities rpesent) which i suppose you could say is a part of the comfort zone.

now that last statement Quote: This is the year 2006, if you've still got well defined cultural comfort zones, there's something wrong with you. i think is going i little too far into errogance. theres nothing wrong with them forsay. if you look at the situation through your persepctive, then yes it may seem wrong, now if you look at the situation through their view point or maybe even someone else's, then it may not seem so wrong...maybe a little immoral or unreasonable.

[Pareve]

I attended a high school where I was the only Jewish kid, and certainly the only person who kept kosher or anything like that. Honestly, one of the reasons going to college is awesome is because I can hang out with other Jewish kids. It's not that I don't like other people or anything. In fact, most of my friends aren't Jews. It's just that sometimes, it's nice to be around other people who share such an important cultural experience with me, or that won't ask things like "you can just pick the pepperoni off, right?"

[Wolverine]

Different cultures have different values, it is easier to relate to the culture of your own, the ones that are similar.

[The Demagogue]

Quote: This is the year 2006, if you've still got well defined cultural comfort zones, there's something wrong with you.

Since your poll was about racism, I will describe my observations is solely that area.

In high schools, that is an unfortunately prevalent occurance. In mine, any minority student (Asian, African-American, Latin American) would gravitate towards one area. The African-Americans shared common experiences, beliefs, jokes, and so on. However, those who were not African-American yet still minorities had absolutely no connection at all. They came from all socioeconomic, religious, political, educational backrounds, yet still "hung" together.

Therein lies the problem, brought on by everyone. There was complete acceptance at our school, yet it was not taken advantage of by the minorities. In fact, it was very awkward for those of us in the majority of any category to go and initiate the conversations, both for fear of offense, and insecurity and unawareness of what to say. The former was mainly brought on by the vocalized concerns of the African-American group (predominately) that the school had racial tension and didn't want to integrate. That was not true. It was because of cultural comfort zones and the like that the problem was brought on. The school was ready, but no one came to accept their acceptance.